I-10 bridge inspection complete

BATON ROUGE - DOTD says the I-10 Mississippi River bridge inspection is complete and is safe to use.

Rodney Mallett, DOTD Communications Director, says the inspection was routine and has to be done every two years and that the safety of the bridge was never in question.

The inspection started Saturday morning and finished at around Sunday at 1 p.m. All lanes on the bridge have since reopened.

This was the first inspection of the 'New Bridge' since an audit released in April found problems with the routines of bridge inspectors. The audit said 14 percent of bridges in Louisiana are structurally deficient. DOTD says it's doing a better job this year.